Who else was on that line? Was Rosy Grier? He was a beast as well. I know Merlin Olsen's career quite well because he was a great friend of the family. The family legend was that my dad once beat him up, which was hilarious, because my dad was like 4 years older than him, and it happened when Merlin was like 5 and my dad was 9.

We watched as much of the Merlin highlight reels as we could get our hands on. Our city library had a lot of NFL Films, and we'd check them out and watch them over and over, and Deacon Jones was the guy that I was instantly amazed by. He was so quick off the ball, and on top of the quarterback before he could even get to his first read.

When the Hawks first had Jacob Green I felt like he had some Deacon qualities. He was so quick off the end and would demolish guys. Sure he was no Deacon Jones, but he was a great end.

SharkHawk wrote:Who else was on that line? Was Rosy Grier? He was a beast as well. I know Merlin Olsen's career quite well because he was a great friend of the family. The family legend was that my dad once beat him up, which was hilarious, because my dad was like 4 years older than him, and it happened when Merlin was like 5 and my dad was 9.

We watched as much of the Merlin highlight reels as we could get our hands on. Our city library had a lot of NFL Films, and we'd check them out and watch them over and over, and Deacon Jones was the guy that I was instantly amazed by. He was so quick off the ball, and on top of the quarterback before he could even get to his first read.

When the Hawks first had Jacob Green I felt like he had some Deacon qualities. He was so quick off the end and would demolish guys. Sure he was no Deacon Jones, but he was a great end.

The Fearsome Foursome was Deacon Jones, Roosevelt Grier, Merlin Olsen and Lamar Lundy. ....And btw, Grier was a NY Giant before being traded to the Rams.

He was well before my time but I always loved his interviews and how straight up he was about everything. Plus, his highlights look like a grown man playing against boys. He was just so much quicker, stronger, and just meaner than everybody else. He definitely had the spirit of a Seahawk, despite never having played for the team. I'm sure that made the few Rams fans who lurk around here sick to their stomachs.

You hear this often but a lot of the times it's BS. Like, will this person REALLY be missed? Really...

But Deacon Jones will be greatly missed. His insight to that era of football and how it was played and what it took to play it can not and will not be replicated.